Review Blog

Dec 14 2015

The vanilla slice kid by Adam Wallace and Jack Wodhams

Ill. by Tom Gittus. Ford Street Publishing, 2015. ISBN 9781925272024
There is a hint of Roald Dahl in this story of an isolated and
unloved child with an unusual talent subjected to a crazy bid for
power. His parents are extreme versions of selfishness and greed and
the General a caricature with his multiple injuries and prosthesis.
However Archie maintains his innocence and belief in his friends.
Archie Cunningham was born with an amazing gift. He had the ability
to produce delicious cakes which shot from the palm of his hands.
Unfortunately his parents did not love him at all. Not only did they
resent his existence but his mother especially only loved cakes and
kept him locked away from the world and other people. As he grew
older they exploited his cake making to develop a thriving and very
profitable life. When the Tax Office sues them for unpaid taxes,
Archie finally has his opportunity to meet other children when he
attends school for the very first time, as a 12 year old.
Having no experience with other children, far from fitting in, he
reveals his talents for shooting vanilla slices when he is subjected
to bullying. The whole incident is uploaded to Youtube which
completely enrages his mother who is happy to see him taken away to
The Centre. Archie is very relieved to be away from his parents, but
soon discovers all is not quite as it seems at The Centre. The
General who is in charge is quite batty and aims to clone Archie and
form an army to take over the world. Archie meets two other children
with unusual talents and together with the help of Mr Tomkins a
substitute teacher who also works for The Centre, they escape.
The adventure begins as Archie learns who he can trust, the meaning
of true friends and the downside of fame when he discovers he has a
cult following generated by social media who quote from The Book
of Archie : Recipes and a way of Life.
Escaping the General, complete with cloned armies, rescue, betrayal,
self sacrifice and huge quantities of chocolate mud cake, Pavlovas
and a 12 tiered wedding cake make this a food romp of epic
proportions.
Sue Keane